By: Johnson, Kolkhorst S.B. No. 893
(In the Senate - Filed January 24, 2025; February 13, 2025,
read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
March 17, 2025, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 11, Nays 0; March 17, 2025,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 893 By: Perry
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to criminal offenses for creating and distributing certain
misleading images and videos; creating a criminal offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Section 255.004, Election Code,
is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 255.004. FALSE IMAGES, VIDEOS, AND SOURCES [TRUE
SOURCE] OF COMMUNICATION.
SECTION 2. Section 255.004, Election Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (c), (d), and (e) and adding Subsections (d-1)
and (d-2) to read as follows:
(c) An offense under Subsection (a), (b), or (d) [this
section] is a Class A misdemeanor. An offense under Subsection
(d-1) is a Class B misdemeanor.
(d) A person commits an offense if the person, with the
intent to deceive and with the intent to injure a candidate or
influence the result of an election:
(1) creates or causes to be created a deep fake video;
and
(2) publishes, distributes, or causes [the deep fake
video] to be published or distributed the deep fake video [within 30
days of an election].
(d-1) A person commits an offense if the person, with the
intent to deceive and influence the result of an election:
(1) creates or causes to be created an altered image;
and
(2) publishes, distributes, or causes to be published
or distributed the altered image.
(d-2) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution for an
offense under Subsection (d-1) if the person includes on the image a
clear label stating that the image is altered.
(e) In this section:
(1) "Altered image" means an image that has been
manipulated to change the physical appearance of an individual or
depict an individual performing an action that the individual did
not perform. The term does not include:
(A) a cartoon, caricature, or any other image
that a reasonable viewer would understand to be a satirical
representation of the individual; or
(B) an image altered only to change the
saturation, brightness, contrast, color, or any other superficial
quality of the image.
(2) "Deep[, "deep] fake video" means a video[, created
with the intent to deceive,] that appears to depict a real person
performing an action that the person did not perform [occur in
reality].
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
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